(FLIP/IFEX) – On 2 September 2005, journalist Patricia Uribe and camera operator Germán Palma, of the “Noticias Uno” television programme, were harassed and assaulted by officers of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, while covering a story on squatters displaced by the civil war. The incident occurred in the Kennedy neighbourhood in southern Bogotá. Uribe told FLIP […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – On 2 September 2005, journalist Patricia Uribe and camera operator Germán Palma, of the “Noticias Uno” television programme, were harassed and assaulted by officers of the Bogotá Metropolitan Police, while covering a story on squatters displaced by the civil war.
The incident occurred in the Kennedy neighbourhood in southern Bogotá. Uribe told FLIP that the police did not permit them to enter the abandoned houses that had been occupied by the squatters. Reportedly, there was some tension between the squatters and the police. Nevertheless, Uribe and Palma managed to enter the homes and film a number of interviews.
They were about to leave when they were intercepted by police, who asked them for their papers. The police let Uribe go but detained Palma, allegedly for “disrespecting the authorities”. The camera operator told FLIP that he was forced into a patrol car and made to lie on the floor. He was reportedly beaten and kicked as he was being taken to a nearby police station.
On the way to the station, Palma refused to hand over his video camera, despite the officers’ attempts to seize it and the videocassette inside. The cassette was eventually returned to the journalist but his camera suffered some damage.
Colonel Pedroza, head of the Kennedy Eighth Police Division, questioned the journalist about who had helped him and Uribe enter the abandoned houses.
FLIP learned that Colonel Pedroza took Palma to a medical clinic, where they treated his injuries and told him not to return to work for four days in order to recover from the injuries he had sustained. The organisation tried unsuccessfully to contact the authorities and obtain their version of events.
FLIP calls on police officers to respect journalists’ work and urges the authorities to investigate the actions of the officers who were implicated in this incident.
